For what its worth I went back to my old Hoquat catalogs (1983) to check on the JC cars. JC produced seven different car kits in both corrugated and smooth side versions. They were: 18 roomette, diner, coach, coach/baggage/dorm, RPO, baggage mail and baggage. I had no listing for an observation in either style. Kits were $23.00
Jeff Wilson
Hoquat Hobbies
---In S-Scale@yahoogroups.com, <s-scale@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dave,
Many of Doc Johnson's Midgage cars are down here on a complete train owned by Jack Troxell. They have never been detailed but when his layout was running weekly it took a lot of power up front to move them. Even aluminum that thick has some weight plus the trucks of the time didn't help either. Jack did pull off one his triumphs in converting one of the cars into a boat-tail observation made from a chunk of wood expertly formed and finished.
I understood the Midgage cars were based on UP cars. I owned a couple of them for awhile thinking I might add some additional horizontal ribs and call them MILW cars, but that passed too.
I started 4 or 5 of the JC cars a long time ago, but if I built them per plans it's difficult to put the sides on after painting without showing the major seam between the ends and the sides--still in "what to do next mode" on that one!
Bob Werre
Many of Doc Johnson's Midgage cars are down here on a complete train owned by Jack Troxell. They have never been detailed but when his layout was running weekly it took a lot of power up front to move them. Even aluminum that thick has some weight plus the trucks of the time didn't help either. Jack did pull off one his triumphs in converting one of the cars into a boat-tail observation made from a chunk of wood expertly formed and finished.
I understood the Midgage cars were based on UP cars. I owned a couple of them for awhile thinking I might add some additional horizontal ribs and call them MILW cars, but that passed too.
I started 4 or 5 of the JC cars a long time ago, but if I built them per plans it's difficult to put the sides on after painting without showing the major seam between the ends and the sides--still in "what to do next mode" on that one!
Bob Werre
On 10/1/13 8:40 AM, David Engle wrote:The cars I have are all the pre-war PS pattern, that is, the upper letterboard is half smooth, half-corrugated. I have never seen, let alone owned , any smooth-side cars. The only possible exception is several cars that are smooth except for a horizontal rail above and below the windows; I understand those are aluminum extrusions by Sylvania, whomever they were. Midgage is known for the long extrusions that I understand were actually made by AF to match AF cars.I remember getting 3 cars in 1957 or 58, then trading them to Doc Johnson in St. Louis for 2 AF coaches and a Midgage express reefer at the St.Louis MCoR convention. By their 1962 convention, I was set in my all-scale ways; in 1968 I acquired all 3 Chester cars back plus about a dozen or so more, but never really put them in service--no trucks at the time. I doubt I have all the different sides that Chester offered. I acquired a shortened RPO from Dick Karnes in those days, and it is on the layout as a straight RPO. More recently, he has done an observation car from Chester sides, etc;Dave Engle
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